Wrench.



R. Y. BOVEE.

WRENCH.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 28, 1915.

Patented Oct. 10, 1916.

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RANSOM Y. BOVEE, or BLOQMINGTON, ILLINOIS.

WRENCH.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 1 0, 1916.

Application filed May 28, 1915. Serial No. 30,958.

T 0 all whom it may concern Be it known that I, RANSOM Y. BovnE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Bloomington, in the county of McLean and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in WVre'nches, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in monkey wrenches, and has for one object to provide a new and improved form of monkey wrench in which the sliding head is held in position on the shank by a ratchet or tooth arrangement, but it may still snugly grip every individual size of nut no matter what its dimensions. Another object is to provide a monkey wrench which furnishes its own ratchet action.

Another object is to provide a monkey wrench which will grip a nut firmly and rigidly and prevent slipping of the nut.

Other objects of my invention will ap pear in the specification.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein'- Figure l is a side elevation of the wrench; Fig. 2 a plan view; Fig. 3 a side elevation in different position. I

I Like parts are indicated by like throughout the several figures. v v A is the shank of the wrench. At one end it hasrig'idly attached thereto a jaw mem+ ber A At the other end it enters into and is pivoted in position in the hollow handle A being held upon the pivot A This hollow letters handle'as indicated is enlarged aboutjthis pivotal pointto form a rigidp'o'werful snpport for the pivoted end of the shank. The end of the shank isnotched as at Ah so that it may be engaged by a pin A. This pin slides within the handle A being guided by a track A". It has a knurled thumb-piece A projecting outward through a slot A in the.

handle A and is held in whatever position it is put by the spring A, so that when in the position shown Fig. 1 it engages the shank and prevents relative rotation of shank and handle, w hereas, in the position shown in Fig. 3, being withdrawn, .it. disengagesthe shank and permits rotation.

B is a sliding carriage free to slidealong the shank. A. It carries the sliding jaw 13 in opposition to the fixed jaw A B is a lever arm pivotedon the carriage B, having a serrated or tooth d face Kain opposition-"to the toothed.- ratchet bar B".

B is a spring engaging the thumb+piece Bf and adapted to thrust the surface 13 yieldinglv but firmly against the bar B. The bar 13* is pivoted at B in the handle A and has an extension or pin B slidable in a bracket B on the end of the shank A.

- B is' a coil spring surrounding this pin and adapted to be compressed as indicated between the bracket or lug B and the shoulder 13 adjacent the pivotal point B". r

The handle A is provided with an exten sion lip orshroud O which has a two-fold function. It prevents the hands of the operator from contact with the end of the eX- tenslon pin B and it guides and protects that pin and prevents displacement of the parts. Under some circumstances the 0nd of the pin can come in contact with the inside of this shroud to assist in looking the parts together for resisting too free disengagement of the parts when this is undesirable. The rotation of the-handle and the shank with respect one to the other as shown in Fig. 3, is limited by the compression of the spring between the collar and the lug. The rotation in the other direction is limited as shown inFig. 1 by the engagement of the back side of the shank behind the pivotal point with the wall of the handle A It will be noted that, in order to permit relative movement of the handle without disturbing the parallelism of the ratchet bar and shank, the pivotal connection between the handle. and the ratchet bar is slidablc as indicated, the pivoted pins sliding in a slot on the ratchet bar.

Itwill be evident that while I have shown in my drawings an operative device, still thus the shank is, free to move through a small angle with respect to the handle be.-

fore it is stopped or limited by the stop member A and thus it is possible to compensate for inaccuracy in position of thejaw B with respect to the toothed bar B. When the movementfrom one tooth to the next does not givethe pro er adjustment moving ever, because the teeth on the ratchet bar the part A back and forth will cause slight congrollable movement with respect to the sha t.

The use and operation of my invention areas follows :When the parts are in the position shown in Fig. 1 with the handle and shank locked against relative movement,

the operator manipulates the wrench in the well known manner, presses down on the thumb-piece, frees the teeth-1n engagement and slides the carriage and sliding jaw back and forth along the shank, releasing the thumb-piece when the jaws are at the proper distance from one another. This gives him a rigid Wrench of the well'known type. Howand the lever must be of a certain minimum size in order to prevent breakage or stripping, it is evident that it is impossible al-' ways to have the proper distance between the two jaws to fexactlyffit the nut to be turned. The operator obviates this difficulty by releasing or moving backthe latch pin, thus, permitting a free rotary movement of the handle and shank with respect one to another, resisted only by the compression 7 of the coil spring. In this case he would slightly reduce the distance between the two jaws, the wrench in theposition shown in Fig. .1," and would engage the nut by bending backthehandle. This willdraw the sliding jaw along the shank as shown vin l ig. 3, and permit the operator to grip the nut snugly and firmly. The tension of the spring will of course tend'to cause the handleand shank to assume their normal positions, and thus the nut will be firmly gripped by the spring tension, even before the operator brings any pressure to bear upon the handle. When he does this pulling toward him in the usual way, the two jaws will, of course, come powerfully together and grip the nut'firmly." If now the operator wishesto operate the wrench as a ratchet wrench, he presses back on the handle and the pressure being reversed, the

' handle will assume the extreme position shown in Fig. 3', the jaw will be withdrawn normally holds the toothed bar 13* in a forward posit-ionkeeping the end of the part B yieldingly out of engagement with the resistance plate C. When the wrench is closed upon the object to be grippedthe tension on the handle will cause it to rock slightly with respect to the shank to overcome the spring resistance and thrust the V endB into engagement with the curved re-' sistance plate C thus frictionally resisting any movement of the handle with respect to the shank. The spring 13 is thus compressed between a part on the shank and a part on the toothed bar. The function of the pivot pins B when the handle is moved in the reverse direction is, of course, merely to draw the toothed bar 13* back and carry with it the slidable jaw to disengage the nut. The plate C, it will be observed, has a cam surface, the upper edge of which is nearer to the pivot A so that when the operator grips thenut with the handle A bent back and commences to turn it by rotating thehandle A forward the handle tends to rotate about the pivot A The cam surface. forcing the member B forwardly firmly clamps the jaws B A upon the object to be turned thus preventing any release; of the object and since this cam surface applies frictional resistance against the part B, the wrench can be used sidewise.

or forward or any angular arrangementexcept backward.

I claim :j a V 1. A wrench comprising a handle, a shank pivotally mounted thereon, a jaw slidable along the shank, a ratchet bar parallel with the shank and adjustable inengagement with the jaw and in loose pivotal engagement with the handle, a spring interposed betweenthe shank and the bar to normally thrust the jaw away from the handle.

2. A wrench comprising a handle, a shank pivoted thereon, a lug carried by the shank, V

a jaw slidable on the shank, a ratchet bar slidable along the shank, an adjustable connection between it and the jaw, said bar being slidable through the lug on the shank and loosely pivoted on the handle, a spring interposed between the bar and the lug to yieldingly thrust the bar and jaw away from the end of the shank, a cam carried by the handle in opposition to the end of the 1 bar.

3. A wrenchcomprising a handle, a shank pivotally mounted thereon, a jaw slidable along theshank, a ratchet bar parallel with the shank and adjustable in engagement with the jaw and in loose pivotal engagement with the handle, a spring interposed between the shank and the bar to normally thrust the jaw away from the handle, a cam carried by the handle in engagement with the end of the ratchet bar, to thrust the -ratchet bar out from the handle in-response to rotation of the handle with respect to the shank; a

4. A wrench comprising a handle, a shank pivoted thereon, a lug carried by the shank, a jaw slidable on the shank, a ratchet bar slidable along the shank. an adjustable connection between it and the jaw, said bar be ing slidable through the lug on the shank and loosely pivoted on the handle.

a 5. A wrench comprisinga handle, a shank pivoted thereon, a lug carried by the shank, a jaw slidable on the shank, a ratchet bar slidable along the shank, an adjustable connection between it and the jaw, said bar being slidable through the lug on the shank and loosely pivoted on the handle, a spring interposed between the bar and the lug to yieldingly thrust the bar and jaw away from the end of the shank.

6. A wrench comprising a handle, a shank pivoted thereon, a jaw slidable on the shank, a thrust member held in parallelism with the shank and connected to the jaw, yielding means for normally holding the handle in substantial parallelism with the shank, said means comprising a spring interposed between the shank and the handle and mounted on the thrust member.

7. A wrench comprising a handle, a shank pivoted thereon, a jaw slidable on the shank, a thrust member held in parallelism with the shank and connected to the jaw, yielding means for normally holding the handle in substantial parallelism with the shank, said means comprising a spring interposed between the shank and the handle and mounted on the thrust member, and a cam member on the handle in opposition to the end of the thrust member to positively force the jaw along the shank away from the handle.

In testimony whereof, I affix my signature in the presence of two witnesses this 24 day of May 1915.

RANSOM Y. BOVEE.

Witnesses:

EVERETT W. OGLEVEE, B. A. FRANKLIN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. 0. 

